The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Results tagged ‘ josh geer ’

Three-run homers are one of the most dreaded hits in baseball when they are hit against your team. Three runs is a lot, and to be able to get that many runs in one swing is a huge advantage for the team who hit it.

Last night, Josh Geer had a great outing, but his night was ruined by one swing: a three-run homer by Russell Branyan.

Josh threw well. He went six innings, allowing only those three runs from the homer, with three walks and three strikeouts.

Mike Adams threw a scoreless inning. But Edward Mujica took a tied game and gave it away. He allowed Franklin Gutierrez’s seventh homer of the season to give the Mariners the lead. Gutierrez has hit four home runs against the Padres!! Crazy.

In the top of the second, the Padres got on the board thanks to my boy, Kevin Kouzmanoff! He hit his tenth homer of the season, a two-run blast that went 414 feet!!

Good job, Koozie :)

That gave the Padres a 2-0 lead. But the Mariners came back with the Russell homer.

In the fifth, Tony Gwynn drove in Will Venable to tie the game. But then Mujica gave up the home run, and that was that. We lost 4-3.

Scott Hairston threw out a runner at home, which was really cool. All of our hitters had one hit except Chase Headley and Scotty. We played well, but we didn’t get enough.

But I am very pleased with the way the Padres have been playing in the last two games. I mean, this is more like it. This is what I’m used to; the Padres win the first game, the opposing team wins the second game, and then the Padres win the rubber game and the series.

In 2007, that’s what I could expect from the team every series. I always knew they could win two out of three, and it seemed like they followed a certain pattern. I haven’t been able to expect that for a long time, so this feels really good. I just hope they can stick to the plan.

Today Wade LeBlanc is pitching against Jarrod Washburn. LeBlanc was OK in his first start of the season last Friday, but he needs to go deeper into the game today. We really really need that from him. It’s a day game, so that will be cool. Let’s get this boys!!

I wanted to give a quick update on Trevor, since I haven’t in a while. Trevor had 17 saves in 18 opportunities this season (Heath has 20. HA!). He’s been good with the Brewers, and I really am happy for him, in a sad way. I’m glad that he’s having a good season, and that he’s healthy. And I still really really hope he comes back for at least a few games next season. We’ve got to get him back in a Padres uniform. We miss you Trevor!!

But you put on quite a showReally had me goingNow it’s time to goCurtain’s finally closingThat was quite a showVery entertainingBut it’s over now (but it’s over now)Go on and take a bow

The Padres started out the season wonderfully, almost unbelieveably. I enjoyed it while it was there, I thought, why not? We might not play like that in a long time. Well, turns out I was right. The Padres’ amazing start was just temporary. Now, we can’t hit, we can’t pitch, and we can’t win.

I don’t know what’s wrong with this team. The players have figured out that they haven’t been able hit, pitch, or have solid defense all at the same time. But they haven’t figured out how to fix that yet.

This weekend, we got swept in three to the Houston Astros. We could have, should have, won two of those games.

On Saturday night, we got three runs in the top of the eighth to take the lead. But Luke Gregerson got himself into some trouble in the bottom of the eighth. He was taken out in favor of Cla Meredith, who allowed two runs to score, taking away the Padres’ short-lived lead.

We should have won that game. But the bullpen blew it. It seems whenever we are hitting, really hitting, the bullpen goes out there and matches the runs scored by our boys. It’s terrible!

Yesterday, Josh Geer gave up seven runs in three innings, only five earned. Luis Perdomo gave up two runs. Edwin Moreno and Duaner Sanchez were (miraculously) scoreless, but Arturo Lopez gave up three runs in the bottom of the eighth.

But we hit three home runs. Chase Headley and Adrian Gonzalez each had a two-run shot, and Jody Gerut had a solo shot. We had nine hits, but only five runs. We should have had a lot more runs, but the Astros got some providential defense to keep the Padres from scoring. It was so sad!!

Scott Hairston threw out a runner at home, though. So the 12-5 thumping could have been worse.

After the game, Arturo Lopez was sent down to Triple-A. Yes!! The guy had a great Spring, but he just couldn’t pitch here. Drew Macias came back up. I have a feeling that he’ll be going back and forth a lot to Triple-A. Now we’re a man short in the bullpen, so the guys who are still there need to step it up. So do the starters. Kevin Towers is going to start picking these guys off, one by one, if they keep pitching like they have been.

Here’s the Union-Tribune’s headline this morning: “Houston, they have a problem; make that several.”

It’s so true. We’re pathetic right now. Today is an off-day, and it couldn’t come at a better time. We need a break. The fans need a break. The players…they need to get together, relax, go bowling or play pool or something, and figure this thing out.

I’m prepared to listen to baseball as terrible as this for the rest of the season. I’m prepared to see a loss every single day. But I don’t want to face that. I want this team to win. It’s so hard to lose. I’m prepared to do it, but I really don’t want to. I had to go through that last year. I know what it’s like.

We’ve got all the pieces. Now it’s just a matter of putting them all together. The fans are doing all they can. We’re “keeping the faith,” but that’s not going to do much if the players aren’t doing anything on the field.

The Padres better start doing something positive soon, or I’m going to have to take drastic measures…like go out to Petco Park and talk to them myself :) Speaking of which, I am getting so excited about the game! I really hope I can get a few autographs and balls. We’ll have to see :)

We’re playing the Cubs for three games starting tomorrow before coming home to face the Reds, Giants, and Cubs. It will be good to be home for a while…I think. There had better be bigger crowds this homestand!!

What better way to start a new series than a perfect outing by Jake Peavy! But then again, we never score runs for him. Hopefully this will be one of those rare occasions, though. We need a huge outburst against the Cubbies this week!

It was an amazing game, very well played by both teams. But the Padres came out on top, and that’s all that matters :)

Josh Geer and Aaron Cook worked identically. They matched each other almost pitch for pitch. Both starters went eight innings, allowing one run on five hits. But Geer only walked two and struck out three, while Cook walked three and struck out five. Geer has a lower ERA though.

They were both excellent. It was a duel all the way, and both pitchers were really mowing. Looking at the boxscore is really incredible to see how their innings mirrored each other so closely. Like, they both would got 1-2-3 in one inning, and then both face four batters in the next, and it was almost creepy!

Josh Geer definitely had the best outing of his career, and we needed it. I think he’s definitely going to stick around up here for a while.

On the offensive side, we struck Cook early, and it was a good thing that we did. Brian Giles singled, David Eckstein doubled, and a few batters later, Jody Gerut sac-flied him in.

The score stayed 1-0 Padres until the eighth, when Chris Iannetta hit a solo homer to tie things up. That was Geer’s only glitch. I don’t really like Iannetta. He’s annoying, hitting all these homers against us.

In the ninth, Heath Bell came in after not pitching for 10 days. A little rust? Not at all. Heath was pumped up, throwing 96-MPH gas and tearing down the hitters he faced. He allowed a single in the ninth with two outs, but the next batter was blown away.

In the bottom of the ninth, we got a runner on, but couldn’t get him in.

Heath also pitched the tenth, and went 1-2-3. In both of his innings, he got four strikeouts. He was so sharp, it was almost unbelieveable.

To the top of the tenth…

Luis Rodriguez started the inning, making an out. Edgar Gonzalez pinch-hit for Heath Bell. This at-bat gave us the game. Edgar worked a walk on four straight pitches, putting the potential winning run on first.

Brian Giles came to the plate, with a single and two walks earlier in the night. It was a big at-bat. Gillies worked it. Four foul balls, two pickoff attempts and three balls later, Brian connected and sent the ball deep to right center field. It didn’t get out, but it bounced on the warning track and into the right fielder’s glove. He threw it into the infield, but it was too late. Edgar ran all the way from first to score with a slide. Padres win!!

It was such a great game! I couldn’t believe we actually won! I just sat there, laughing. “Wow, that feels good!!”

And it does, man. We hadn’t won since last Tuesday – a week ago! It was great to beat the Rockies and split the “series”.

But best of all, all the restrictions have now been removed since my boys played hard and got a win.

The boys can now have hot showers, grow out their beards, travel in their luxury plane to Houston, maybe they should leave Jeff the Ram’s Head though, eat lots of candy, have their luxury lockers back, get their money again, leave the ballpark and sleep in their own beds, and of course, no more Vegemite!

Good job, boys. See, having their special things taken away worked! It’s a good thing they won though, ’cause their showers were going to be next!

I knew we were going to have small crowds this homestand, but it is kind of disappointing that no one is out there. We only had 14,000 on Monday, and only 13,000 last night. That’s really sad. I know the Padres haven’t been playing that great, but we need to get out there and support our team. If I could, I would be out there everyday. But I can’t. Our boys played a stellar game last night, and only a few people got to see it.

I just hope we get better crowds in the next two games. Tonight Jake Peavy is pitching, so hopefully more people will come out to see them. Tomorrow is a 2-for-1 Getaway Day, so there will be a bigger crowd then. These Padres need our support. What is baseball without the fans?

Like I said, Jake Peavy is starting tonight. I expect a solid outing for Jakey, especially at home. He’s going to do great, and hopefully out bats can turn on against Jon Garland.

First off, quick recap of yesterday’s game against the Cubs: Kevin Correia gave up four runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings. Kyle Blanks hit a two-run homer. As you can see, the pitching did pretty well. The attendance of the game was 13, 162. That sets a new Spring Training record! Well, that’s enough of that game.

This morning I got up at six to go watch my brother’s 8:30am game. It stayed overcast almost the entire morning, which was really nice. I just had to share this picture with you guys. Of the four fields in the park, only the one we were playing on had this:

I thought that was really cool!

The game went really well. I kept score again, and though I felt kind of discombulated at places, I got through it and got the final score right! The Pirates got three runs in the bottom of the first to set the tone of the game. They got four more in the third. The Rays (who were the best team in the league), scored seven runs over the course of the third, fourth, and fifth innings, but the Pirates scored two in the bottom of the fourth and won the game, 9-7.

Looking back, it was a really crazy game. The Rays were pretty good, but we sure beat them up. They gave us nine walks in five innings! It was a wild game, but the Pirates were able to hand the Rays their first loss of the season. My brother did well. He hit a ball into fair territory for the first time, though he hit it to the pitcher. He was getting a lot of good swings, and I think he’s getting there. He also walked. This Pirates team is on a three-game winning streak. I might add that I started scoring the games on that first win, and I have scored the next two as well. Uh oh…I’m not going to be able to make it to their next game! Haha. Of course, me being there has absolutely no effect on the outcome of the game. I can pretend, though :)

The next part of the day was going to my other brother’s baseball game. To avoid any confusion, I have two younger brothers: one is ten, and one is seven. The games I have been talking about up to this point have all been the ten-year-old brother’s games. Now here’s where is gets a little confusing. Both of my brother’s teams are the Pirates. But they are in separate divisions.

Now I am talking about the seven-year-old brother’s game. They play against a pitching machine, and this was their second game. In the last game, the boys couldn’t hit it at all. They lost 2-0. But afterwards, it was discovered that the machine was six feet closer than it was supposed to be. So this time, with the pitching machine in it’s proper place, the boys did much better. They hit so well! Let’s just say that the final score was about 23-7 Pirates. I wasn’t scoring, so I don’t know the exact score, but it was somewhere in that range. The other team’s fielders weren’t that great, so almost every hit was going past, under, or around a fielder. Apparently there wasn’t much of a mercy rule. But I was very excited for my brother, who got two hits and scored a run. I think a lot of the boys were discouraged after the last game, so it was great to see them all go out and have a wonderful game. I really enjoyed watching it!

Now, the major-league Padres. The Padres got some horrible news yesterday: pitcher Mark Worrell is out for the year. I was listening to the game yesterday, and when Andy Masur told us the news, I just groaned. This is terrible news for the Padres. We aquired Worrell from the St. Louis Cardinals in the Khalil Greene trade along with a player to be named later. Worrell was almost guaranteed a spot in the bullpen. He did very well this spring, giving up two runs in 4.1 innings. Then he got some elbow soreness eariler in the week. He’s going to undergo Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. Remember, this is the guy with the funky side-arm delivery. Apparently that weird delivery caught up to him. This is a huge blow to the Padres. Our pitching has been doing bad enough as it is, and to lose this guy now is devistating. So, Kevin Towers will continue his search for more arms, and we’re definitely going to see some new pitchers in camp soon.

The third baseball game I observed today was the Padres-Giants game this afternoon. I got a lot of baseball in today! It was a pretty bad game. We had a 2-1 lead until the sixth. Then the Giants got nine runs. Walter Silva started the game, going four innings, giving up two hits and a run. I am really impressed with his guy. He can pitch, man. I think he’s going to be in our rotation. He was definitely the highlight of the game. Our newly signed pitcher, Duaner Sanchez, had a solid inning. Enter Jae Kuk Ryu. How’s eight runs for a day’s work? And he only got one out in all that. He hasn’t been the best this spring. Arturo Lopez gave up a run. Naturally, Joe Thatcher gave up two runs. WHY is he still here???

David Eckstein had a great day, getting three hits in three at-bats. Drew Macias hit his third home run of the spring. My boy Kevin Kouzmanoff had two hits and got hit-by-pitch. Yay Kouz!

Tomorrow we are playing the Diamondbacks, Josh Geer vs. Dan Haren. Let’s see if this pitching can do good things for once.

After my brothers both won, I thought, “Hey, it’s the Padres’ turn!” They didn’t get the memo, though. Oh well. Not to alarm anyone, (it’s only Spring Training!!!), but the Padres haven’t won since Wednesday, March 11, in the exhibition game against Team Korea. Wow, that was a long time ago. Just saying…a win would be really nice.

Jake Peavy was going to start USA’s game tomorrow, but Roy Oswalt is starting instead. Roy is one of Jake’s closet friends and hunting buddies, so Jake’s cool with it. Did you that they got to start against each other on Opening Day last year? Jake definitely came out on top on the pitching side, and he even got a couple knocks off his buddy and drove in a few runs. What a great opening week that was. Seemed so hopeful, and look where our season went. Whew. Anyways, I am thankful that Jake isn’t pitching because I don’t want him to get hurt :)

Last night I listened to the last eight minutes of the San Diego State – Kansas State basketball game. OK, the only reason I did it was because a friend was at the game, and I wanted to be informed. I don’t know much about baseketball (it’s too fast-paced for me), but it was really interesting to listen to. Padres broadcaster Ted Leitner called the game, so it was cool to hear him in his other job. One thing I noticed about the broadcast was the drastic change when the game is controlled by the clock. Ted didn’t have time to talk about anything but what was going on in the game right then. During a Padres game, the guys have a ton of time to talk about anything and everything around calling the game. Much more relaxed in baseball. Anyway, the San Diego State Aztecs won 70-52. It was a really great game for SDSU. I didn’t completely understand what was going on, but it was a very well played game. The energy coming from the crowd of 5100 was amazing!

What a game! Last night, the Padres played Team Korea in an exhibition game. The Padres played a great game.

Kevin Correia started, throwing four innings and giving up one hit and one walk. It’s looking even more likely that this guy will get the fourth spot in our rotation, and I think he’s doing great. I mean, four innings and one hit. That’s pretty good, my friends. Pretty great! Wade LeBlanc took the mound next and went three scoreless innings, giving up two hits. LeBlanc has been struggling a bit this spring, so it’s great to see him have some solid innings there. Ivan Nova got hit the hardest, giving up four runs on five hits. But Scott Patterson had a scoreless hitless inning to end the game. I am so glad that our pitching is getting back to form!

On the hitting side, we did very well. We had 14 hits and 10 runs! Brian Giles had three hits in three ABs and drove in two runs. Giles is old, and he’s had a lot of injury problems, but boy can he hit! If he can stay healthy and out of jail, he will be really good for us this year. Chase Headley had two two-run doubles. Yay! Kyle Blanks had a RBI. Cliff Floyd and Jody Gerut each had two hits. Nick Hundley threw out a potential basestealer!

Definitely a great game for my Padres. The pitching was great, and we hit very well. It was a feel-good game.

Today we are playing the Brewers. I bet Trevor’s going to pitch. I mean, he’s gotta face us sometime. I really hope I don’t miss it, though. So, we’ll see how that’s going to go. He probably won’t pitch. I don’t know. All that matters is that we win the game! Hopefully I will get to listen to a lot of this game.

Wow, what a weekend! It was so big that it’s going to take two entries. Wow.

Saturday: 15-6 A’s

Oh boy. This game was so bad that it was funny. Josh Geer started and gave up two home runs, two doubles, and three runs in the first. In his second inning of work (yeah, they actually gave him another inning after all that!), he gave up another run. So, what’s that? 5-0 Oakland in the second. But it was only the beginning. Only the beginning.

Justin Hampson was able to get through unscathed. The game was passed to Cla Meredith, who threw a scoreless inning. That’s really rare these days from the Padres’ pitching staff. Very impressive. But then Cesar Ramos gave up six runs in 0.2 innings. That’s really great for the young guy, huh? I can’t believe they left him in for that long. Chris Britton had a scoreless inning, but he gave up three walks. Matt Buschmann gave up four runs. What is that now? 14 runs for Oakland. Scott Patterson gave them their 15th. Mark Worrell closed out the game with a scoreless inning. Did you know that he hasn’t given up a run yet this spring? I really like this guy. I hope he makes the Opening Day roster.

So, in case you hadn’t noticed, our pitching is really, REALLY bad. With Friday and Saturday combined, they gave up 28 runs. That’s nasty. Man, it’s just bad right now. And Saturday was the day that I was hoping that we’d have a good game on the pitching side! I mean, most of the guys who threw on that day are the best of the pitching staff right now. I know, it’s still really early in the spring, and we have like four weeks ’til Opening Day. But I don’t understand how these guys could be so solid a week ago and are now falling apart all over the place.

The offense was bad. We scored six runs, sure, but the other team scored 15. Yeah. David Eckstein had a good game, with a double, RBI single, and sac fly. Brian Giles had an RBI single. Will Venable had two hits and drove in a run. Kouz got a hit and an RBI.

You just gotta laugh when the game gets that bad. I mean, the A’s were just pounding out run after run after run. It’s just a Spring Training game, no reason to get upset, might as well just laugh. We were getting killed. You never like to see you team do so miserably, but that game was just funny.

Sunday: 4-2 Rockies

OK, so what’s up with the Rockies? Once they get to face the Padres’ terrible pitching, they finally get it going and win some games! Figures. I knew they were going to get going soon.

Let’s see…Chris Young…first inning…three runs to Colorado. CY also pitched the second and gave up another run. This was only his third outing, so I guess he can have a bad day. But I am slightly consoled by the fact that he was the only pitcher who gave up runs yesterday. Nick Schmidt, Mike Ekstrom, and Will Inman had scoreless innings. But I am very pleased that Mat Latos had two scoreless innings. That has got to feel great for the young guy. Before yesterday’s outing, he had allowed four runs, three home runs, and six hits in two innings. I am very happy for him.

Offense? Travis Denker and Matt Antonelli drove in our runs. Chris Burke went 2-for-3. Nick Hundley had a triple. That was pretty much it. It wasn’t that great of a day for the Padres.

Today we are playing the Diamondbacks. Hmm, that’s going to be interesting. Cha Seung Baek is starting. He has not been doing well so far, but hopefully he will find his groove soon. Let’s see if we can get a “W” today!

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